Google Patents Holograms For Glass, Which Could Involve Magic Leap.

Today Google published a patent application for using holograms in a head mounted display like Google Glass. It would effectively let Google create augmented reality experiences that superimpose computer-generated imagery (CGI) atop the real world. Filed in March 2014, the patent shows Google’s research into how it could merge its head mounted display technology with AR.
But what’s perhaps more fascinating is how the patent contextualizes Google Inc leading the $542 million funding round for augmented reality startup Magic Leap. One possibility is that Google’s smart eyewear could be the hardware platform for Magic Leap‘s AR content.

When asked about the patent and its significance, I got this boilerplate no-comment response from Google: “We hold patents on a variety of ideas – some of those ideas later mature into real products or services, some don’t. Prospective product announcements should not necessarily be inferred from our patents.” But let’s dive a little deeper, though the patent might never be exercised and there’s no official word on how it could relate to Magic Leap.
While Google’s original Glass initiative faltered due to the hardware’s clunkiness and lack of real-world utility, it’s still in the smart eyewear game. It’s selling versions of Glass for enterprise, according to 9To5Google’s Stephen hall. Meanwhile, Business Insider’s Jillian D’Onfro recently reported that Google is trying to revive the Glass initiative through what it’s calling Project Aura.
One way to make smart eyewear more useful would be to allow projected content to interact and react to the real-world behind it, rather than just being pasted on top. The new patent “Lightguide With Multiple In-Coupling Holograms For Head Wearable Display” details how Google could potentially do this with augmented reality via holograms. It describes how “with augmented reality the viewer’s image of the world is augmented with an overlaying CGI, also referred to as a heads-up display”.

But who would make the holograms projected in Google’s smart eyewear? Magic Leap is one possibility.
Over the past few years, Magic Leap has filed a bunch of trademarks for forthcoming augmented reality content. These include characters, titles, and games like Super Bionic Bitforce, Roadkill Warriors, Monsta Battle, Moonstone Monsters, Moonsters, and my personal favorite, Flutterboard, which refers to “flying sentient skateboards”. 
This patent and trademark research came from legal technology firm SmartUp Legal. The company’s founder Mikhail Avady tells me “I believe Google wants Magic Leap to be the content provider for Google Glass. If we look at their trademark applications, it shows very story and content based trademarks. Magic Leap wants to turn the world into a movie theater and Google wants it to be through Glass.”
That could be a logical factor in why Google Inc, not Google Capital or Google Ventures, but the core technology company itself, led the half-billion dollar round in Magic Leap. For Glass to become a popular augmented reality platform, it will need great content — something Google’s never been great at it. But with tons of gaming talent, Magic Leap could perhaps one day make must-see AR experiences that run on Google’s hardware.

Daniel Kaufman, Pres. & CEO, Reagan Wireless Corp.

www.reaganwireless.com

Sundar Pichai: Google's new boss from humble roots

With Google creating its own parent company, Alphabet, there's a bit of moving about in the Google boardroom.

Larry Page is now chief executive of Alphabet. Sergey Brin is its president.

And moving up to be in charge of Google is 43-year-old Sundar Pichai.

Great news for Pichai, and good news too for India - his appointment makes him the latest Indian to earn a massively high-profile job in the US technology industry. Microsoft's Satya Nadella is the other notable example.

Pichai's life story is remarkable, and his rise to the top of Google is a glowing endorsement of India's standing in the global technology industry, and equally, a reassuring reminder of the so-called "American Dream".

Pichai was born and schooled in Chennai, India. He captained his school's cricket team, leading it to win regional competitions.

He studied Metallurgical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur). According to one of his tutors, quoted in the Times of India, Pichai was the "brightest of his batch".

He has evidently used his talent to great effect at Google, a company he joined in 2004. Products under his watch include Google's web browser, Chrome, as well as the Android mobile operating system.

Android is by far the world's most popular mobile OS - a fact made perhaps more startling by the fact Pichai's family did not possess a telephone until he was 12 years old.

Challenges

According to a profile in Bloomberg magazine, Pichai's upbringing was humble. His family lived in a two room apartment. Pichai didn't have a room - he slept on the living room floor, as did his younger brother.

The family didn't own a television, or a car.

But Pichai's father planted the seeds of technology into his boy's mind, partly thanks to his job at British conglomerate General Electric Company (not to be confused with the American General Electric).

"I used to come home and talk to him a lot about my work day and the challenges I faced," Regunatha Pichai told Bloomberg, adding that Sundar had a remarkable talent for remembering telephone numbers.

After graduating from IIT Kharagpur, Pichai was offered a scholarship at the ultimate breeding ground of tech geniuses - Stanford. The plane ticket to America cost more than his Dad's annual salary.

At Google, Pichai is described as soft-spoken, and well liked. He is also very popular among developers - he runs Google's annual developer event, I/O.

"Sundar has been saying the things I would have said (and sometimes better!) for quite some time now, and I've been tremendously enjoying our work together," wrote Larry Page in his blogpost announcing all the big changes.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin have been hands-off with Google's day-to-day running for sometime, and so, in Pichai's life, today's announcement is simply making it official: he's in charge.

His remit is best summed up as Google's core products - the bits that make the real money. That includes things like search, advertising, maps and YouTube.

He has challenges to navigate, like YouTube's increasingly intense battle with Facebook in the video space. The social network has dramatically increased the amount of video being watched on its site - but YouTube still holds the title of most popular, for now at least.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33858436

Daniel Kaufman, Pres. & CEO, Reagan Wireless Corp. 

www.reaganwireless.com